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Villanova Basketball Preview 2013: Josh Hart

As we creep closer to the exhibition game vs. West Chester, we will be previewing the roster on a player-by-player basis. Next up is freshman wing Josh Hart.

Instagram - @villanovabasketball

Hometown: Washington, D.C.

High School: Sidwell Friends

Height: 6'5"

Weight: 202

2012-13 Stat Line

MIN FGM-FGA FG% 3PM-3PA 3P% FTM-FTA FT% REB AST BLK STL PF TO PTS
DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP

Josh Hart comes to Villanova and joins a crowded Villanova backcourt. During his senior season at Sidwell Friends, Hart averaged 24.3 ppg, 13.4 rpg and 2.8 spg en route to All-Met honors via The Washington Post. He's a graduate of the Team Takeover AAU program.

Hart was a consensus Top 100 prospect, eventually considering just Penn State and Rutgers before committing to Villanova in October 2012. Hart's best known for his defensive prowess, high work rate, and midrange offensive game.

With James Bell, Darrun Hilliard (and possibly classmate Kris Jenkins) to compete with on the wing for Villanova, it will be interesting to see how Wright deploys the freshman. Most believe Hart's immediate value lies on the defensive end, where he can use his size and length to guard multiple positions and help replace Mouphtaou Yarou's production in the rebounding game.

Here's Jay Wright on Hart:

"Josh is a complete player who can play any position. He and his family will be great Villanovans for life. Josh is an outstanding player and student coming from Sidwell Friends and having been coached by Eric Singletary."

Best Case Scenario: Hart becomes a valuable addition on the defensive end for Villanova, and plays his role to perfection - more rebounds and steals for the Villanova defense. His high work rate on the glass leads to some easy points on the offensive end, giving the freshman the needed confidence to thrive in the new Big East.

Worst Case Scenario: Bell and Hilliard emerge as consistent players on the wing for Villanova, eating up most of the available minutes. When given an opportunity, Hart struggles on the offensive end leading to a quick hook from Jay.

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The Wisdom of Crowds Returns

We are pleased to return our Wisdom of Crowds experiment for the 2013-2014 season. In this series, we ask that you consider the points raised in our player preview and your own personal insights and instincts to predict the points per game each scholarship player on the roster we score in the upcoming season.

Josh Hart is one of three scholarship freshman on the squad, so we don't have the benefit of prior year stats as a basis for our scoring predication. To the extent that history of past ‘Nova players is any guide, here's a sample of the scoring averages of past Villanova guards during the freshman campaigns:

What do you think the upcoming season holds for Josh? Use the voting buttons below to predict the points per game you think he will score this year. We'd love to understand your thinking, so try to post a comment to tell us how you arrived at your prediction.